Well.

Goals this week:

+ Have Weyoun work again

This goal is not very specific, as the steps we'll be taking to complete it are not yet determined. There are a few things in mind, but I'll mention them in the week wrap up post to explain if they worked or not instead of cluttering up this post. I'll be needing the support and efforts of my entire team, so nobody can be absent this week, guys! (Except today, since I can't magically summon Sammyr and Isai to my side, though that would be seriously cool.)

If you are Mr. Martin and are reading this, please have mercy. We have been working hard, yet nothing seems to go right for us. This "F" is weighing very heavily upon my soul. Help. Please.

Weyoun looks so relaxed and carefree. I'd love to kick him right now.

Frustrated Beyond Belief

Accomplished this week:

+ In-depth maintenance of Weyoun

That's all. Thanks to a series of bad luck (and this coming from someone who doesn't believe in luck!) and our batteries being stolen from their charging station (unless they got up and walked away), what we have accomplished this week is very little. Even our code has stopped working. I'm not sure what we can do anymore. I have an "F" in this class and it is driving me crazy, but as of now there isn't anything I can do to fix that.

Somehow we've got to pull through. Somehow we can make it.

I hope.

(P.S: Blogger, please stop registering me as Sammyr. I am not a male.)

A close-up of the battery we had to borrow from another team

This is a Title

Goal:

+ Obtain the elusive charged batteries

  This is the final week for trying to finish up both our machine's basic programming and its arm attachment. I (Sammyr) don't know how we'll do it, but I have faith in my group. Today in Monday, our battery needs more juice. So for today, I'm just making the this post.

          We'll hopefully have the machine ready by Friday, that includes its autonomous function and its control via remote.

The problematic batteries in question

No Arm, Just Program

     During this week, we ended up taking up its entirety on programming. Our machine had many problems. The best, or should I say the worst, is that our machine had some internal affairs to deal with.

     During its testing, one of its sides tended to turn more powerfully than the other. We suspected this had to do with how we built it. To any future engineering students, make sure you check every variable as to why things don't go as planned.

     But hopefully, we'll be done with this programming and move on to Arming :D

Currently, this is the code we are operating the robot on.

In related news, the robot has officially been dubbed Weyoun! Yay for Star Trek references!

Programming and Arming

Goal:

+ Finish programming
+ Start arm

This week our group is having to work on both programming our robot to move via our controller and by its own coding.

Our goal is to possibly have programming done by Wednesday and the arm done by Thursday. We'll be crunched for time by I think we can make it. We were bewildered as to how we ended up last and it will not last for long!

The Robot's structure is officially finished for this part of the challenge.

Now We Know, Now We Begin

Mr. Martin extensively guided us on how to begin programming through "ROBOTC". We're stuck with a different brain (microcontroller version 0.5) and needed more aid to work with such an old device. To any future "Principles of Engineering" students, you have to be very patient with using this micro controller.

Our group is in last place but with enough research, hard work, and determination, we'll be able to come back to our original position in this Robot Race.

A closeup of our programming USB.
It's really old technology, so it's rather finicky.

Back from Break

Spring Break proved to be a time of rejuvenation once again. Unfortunately, it ended all too soon and left me no alternative... I had to return to school. Due to a streak of bad luck, we are behind on the robot and it can't even move autonomously.

Our goal this week is to get it running by itself, and also to program it.

We need all the help we can get, but nobody seems available for asking. We'll need to do our best and try not to panic...

The program we'll be (hopefully) using soon